Recruiting through Pinewood Derby

[JosephMD]

My wife is the Committee Chair of our Church's pack and has seen the pack shrink of the last few years as recruiting has not been very successful.

 

An idea was floated to invite all children from the church to the pinewood derby.  It seems like it would make a great recruiting event.  Obviously, since you would need to get them a car & provide them with some instructions & rules, you'd need sign ups ahead of time, which would be good for getting contact info for later follow up.

 

What do you think the pros and cons would be?  Any cub scouters with experience doing this very thing?

 

Thanks,
Joe

[qwazse]

Any and all means!

 

Step 1. Research your market. Have you an estimate of how many children that would mean? Talk to your COR if you're fuzzy on those numbers.

 

Step 2. Require a nominal registration fee. Say, $10 per guest racer. Then, at the race, provide a "coupon" for a discount of the same value on registration fee if the boy (or girl, since 2018 is not that far away) signs on for the year at the next den or pack meeting.

 

Step 3. After action, review. Figure out what percent of your "market" was recruited. Estimate if the market will grow or shrink next year. (In our church, there are many of one age, but not so many of the next younger age.) Determine if you would like to try it again next year.

[dilrod]

We set up a Pinewood Derby track and have a few old cars to run at our spring school event.  There are always some interested children, but we haven't gotten members doing it.

 

I think you have a great idea!  If you do it, please let us know how it turns out.